Piano Classics is unforthcoming about
the origin of these live recordings,
merely stating that their source is
‘Gostelradiofuund, Russian Federation’.
The B minor Sonata is a 1955
performance; the selection from
Book 1 of Années de Pelèrinage dates
from 1972; on the second CD, the
Dante Sonata is from 1971; the Mephisto
Waltz No 1 is from 1967; Rhapsodie espagnole is from 1952; and the seven
titles from the 12 Transcendental
Studies are from various dates between
1950 and 1956 (ie not Berman’s 1959
Melodya recording).

Despite the historical interest of
many of its titles, Piano Classics seems
to aim its recordings not at piano
specialists but at the general music lover
who will not be bothered about such
niceties. They will not mind that the
Sonata is recorded (wherever it was) in an
unsympathetic acoustic, that it is given
just one track on the CD, or that Berman
presents a magisterial view of the work
which builds to a magnificent climax (just
as Vallée d’Oberman does) and ends with
the last quaver pedaled for once, as I am
sure Liszt intended it.

Nor will the idle browser mind or
notice the splashy moments in a Dante
Sonata which is as grippingly tormented
as any you’ll hear, though even a non-pianophile might wince at the
unfortunate passage in the Mephisto
Waltz where Berman loses his way,
reassuring though it is to know that such
things can happen to the best. And
Berman is certainly among that elite, as
evinced in the nonchalantly playful
treatment of Feux follets and, finally,
the
unbridled exuberance of Rhapsodie Espagnole.